Everyday Moral Heroes Reappraise: Moral Engagement in the Face of Unethical Social Influence

Given that unethical behavior can be highly contagious (e.g., Gino, Ayal, & Ariely, 2009), lowering incidences of unethical behavior in the workplace can be challenging where there are already some employees engaging in such behaviors. The irony of this predicament is that the majority of people have strong internal moral standards and consider themselves ethical (Mazar et al., 2008). We address this conundrum by examining moral disengagement as the cognitive mechanism facilitating unethical social influence to learn why ethical, good-intentioned people can do unethical things in the face of unethical examples. Yet, our research recognizes that not everyone who observes unethical behavior behaves unethically. Integrating cognitive reappraisal literature with moral disengagement theory, we argue that cognitive reappraisal inhibits the formation of cognitive distortions that lead to moral disengagement. As such, we suggest that moral heroes are not necessarily those with a stronger moral identity, but those...